1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of digital capturing and, more particularly, relates to a user interface for a portable hand-held capturing appliance for capturing and manipulating images through digital scanning or other means of capturing and communicating those images to other devices.
2. Related Art
Intangible information is a vital business asset that can be exploited for competitive advantage if managed properly. In the past fifteen years, improvements in information processing have been achieved primarily from the widespread use of microcomputers in the workplace and their application in local and wide area networks. Through such applications as electronic mail (email) and networked access to document storage servers, the electronic communications market has exploded. Nevertheless, business is still far from reaching a "paperless" workplace. For example, according to a 1993 report by BIS Strategic Decisions (hereinafter BIS), an information technology consulting firm, more than 90 billion documents were created in 1992 and more than 1 trillion copies of those documents were made. Moreover, BIS estimated that printing and copying expenses average between 6% and 13% of a typical company's revenue. These statistics illustrate the economic savings available for those businesses that are able to merge paper and technology in a unified information processing strategy.
One tool that has proven useful for translating between paper and electronic information is the digital scanner. Scanner-enabled document distribution endows paper-based documents with the speed and convenience of electronic communications. A desktop scanner or network scanner allows business professionals to scan paper-based documents, manage them effectively and distribute them in a timely fashion. Users can share and distribute information easily by scanning directly to their email or PC fax applications. The growing popularity of fax modems and email is driving the acceptance of scanner-enabled document distribution in offices of all sizes. Fax/modem capabilities, which are available with virtually all modern PCs, enable users to send and receive faxes directly from a computer--at their desk or while traveling--and to check email remotely.
Nevertheless, while scanners are ideal for users who need to disseminate paper-based information to colleagues through PC facsimile and/or email, traditional flatbed scanners lack the convenience and flexibility that users have become accustomed to through such products as notebook computers and cellular phones. Hand-held scanners are an improvement in this regard; however, they are typically dependent on a host computer for displaying the scanned images and for providing power. U.S. Pat. No. 5,550,938 to Hayakawa et al. (hereinafter Hayakawa) discloses a portable image scanner designed to overcome these disadvantages. Specifically, Hayakawa discloses a hand-held cordless image scanner having a display/control screen, a memory for storing scanned images, a self contained power supply and an interface that allows the scanner to be received by a host computer as a memory card for transferring stored images from the scanner to the computer. While Hayakawa's scanner is effective in breaking the dependency on a host computer for image display and power, it still has several drawbacks. For example, Hayakawa's scanner offers no image processing features other than the capabilities of storing or discarding a newly scanned image and reviewing those images that have been stored previously. More advanced image processing would necessarily be done after transfer to a host computer. Moreover, Hayakawa does not offer a graphical user interface (GUI) containing icons and/or animations to assist users in operating their device. Finally, transfer of images is limited to those devices having ports for receiving an external memory card or the capability of reading the scanner memory through a memory card drive.
Accordingly, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry for providing a hand-held image capturing appliance and method that allows users to navigate among multiple captured images, as well as functional menus in the appliance before transferring the captured images to some other unit such as a computer, printer, or facsimile machine. In addition, the capturing device should provide cordless operation and use a standard interface for transferring images to other devices. A GUI is preferred to assist users, particularly novices, in operating the device.